Our Vacation at Home

The boys and I had Thursday and Friday off school, and since Mike has "saved up" so much time off that they're going to stop giving it to him... we all took a 5 day weekend and it was amazing. Because a real vacation just didn't fit into the budget, we decided to act like we were on vacation even though we were at home. We have all been so busy and things have been so crazy, it was so nice to just relax and have fun as a family!
We started out the vacation by spending a day at the pool (we have a pass to the Rec Center), the boys have been working so hard in swim lessons so it was great to get to practice all their new skills. Some of our friends came with us and it was a wonderful day! Sorry I don't have pictures of the pool activities, I love swimming so much that I forgot to get out of the pool and take some pictures of our day aquatics day.
Friday we decided to take the boys up to Temple Square in Salt Lake City. We usually only go at Christmas time to see the lights. It was a great change to be there when the weather was nice and the flowers were in bloom. Here are a few pictures of the highlights.


We went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and played all the Pioneer Games in the Family Search Center... it was super fun!


Alex found this bust of Jesus and he loved it, he sat there talking to it and stroking it for a few minutes until we made him move on...


We were disappointed that the Conference Center was closed for an event, we were so excited to go up on the roof and see the gardens. We were thrilled when someone told us we could go up to the observation deck on top of the Church Office Building-what a view!

I love this family picture of us with the Temple in the background!
Mike told them to hug because we love each other and because of the Temple we can be together forever, this looks more like wrestling than hugging, but hey, I'll take it!


We had to work really hard to keep the boys out of the fountains- :)

Adam was happily playing peek-a-boo with Daddy in his stroller


The boys LOVED this statue, when we first walked up the ramp Alex said, "Look Mom, its Jesus, he LOVES the little children like me!" It was a proud mommy moment!



They loved watching the movies about families in the Visitor's Center, they thought the touch screens were about the coolest thing ever, Wes said, "My finger is the mouse"


We were excited to see the huge organ in the Tabernacle, the boys were very impressed

We thought the miniature city of Jerusalem was super cool

We were sad the Conference Center was closed, but we loved all the fountains!

Saturday we went had our family pictures taken (I'll post them when we get the proofs back, the one I do have is at the top of our blog). After pictures we met Grandpa and Grandma Allred in Springville at the pool (yes, we're water people lol). We swam until our fingers and toes looked like raisins and we were too hungry to swim anymore then went to the park for a picnic dinner.
The weekend was nothing fancy, but we were all surprised at how much fun we could have while still getting to sleep in our own beds! :)